Crypto For Charity: Mine Ethereum To Help Children In Syria

Games
I cover the fascinating worlds of Linux, PC gaming & consumer hardware

I've written a lot about the intersection of cryptocurrency mining and PC gaming hardware since coming back to Forbes, but sadly this story flew under my radar. I'm glad I stumbled across it because sometimes we need some positivity to combat the collective (albeit well-founded) outrage the PC gaming community is feeling about the outrageous prices afflicting the graphics card market. Enter "UNICEF Game Chaingers," a charity effort that leverages Ethereum and the Claymore mining software to raise money for emergency aid and supplies for the 13.5 million people affected by the war in Syria.

UNICEF GameChaingersUNICEF

You can mine multiple crypto coins with Claymore, but UNICEF is choosing Ethereum which remains one of the more profitable crypto coins out there, so it's a good choice. And with a powerful graphics card, you could donate $2 to $3 per day just letting your PC mine to UNICEF's wallet when it's idle.

[Ed note: Though this article is not about investing in cryptocoins or tokens, please note that investing in it is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

Claymore is probably a household name if you're an existing miner, but if you've never tried it before I'm pleased to report UNICEF has all but eliminated the small learning curve associated with the software. Their site has a tool that lets you generate a configuration file based on your operating system and whether you use Nvidia or AMD. It then wraps what would normally be an editable batch file that's used to launch the software into a simple executable that you install and launch.

UNICEF's Game Chaingers progress reportUNICEF

The software will then harness the hashing power of your GPU to mine Ethereum, and automatically pay out to UNICEF's wallet. (Note that mining can moderately raise your electricity bill depending on the hardware used.)

Despite launching at the beginning of the month, the charity drive has only raised £1950 Euros (about $2386 USD) with less than 700 global contributors. I think we can change that, especially knowing how easy it is to get started. The program has 51 days left, so if you're already mining, consider diverting an hour or a day of your hashing power to UNICEF's Ethereum Wallet, found here on their mining setup page. You can also simply donate Ethereum to the same address.

If you're an existing miner using Ethermine, you can also just switch your wallet address to UNICEF's.

If you need an assist with the software or want to get started mining on a regular basis, reach out to me via the social media links below. Let's go mine some Ethereum for a great cause!

Since 2005 I've been entrenched in the video game and consumer tech industries, and fascinated with the rapid evolution of the technology surrounding them. In addition to Forbes, I've contributed to gaming and technology features on PCWorld and Computer Shopper.